I don't know what happened between the last version of Office (which I hate, but use) and this new version (which I also hate, and ended up deleting and going back to old version) -- it is completely unstable.
This is not new to MS Office for Mac -- earlier versions (2004 etc) also crashed regularly, without saving your data, causing heartache and loss of data. That was generally fixed with MSO:M 2008 -- but guess what, the problem is back in MSO:M 2011 --
Very unstable - frequent crashes, and ultimately I had to delete this completely from my mac and reinstall my older versions of MS Office.
Not ready for prime time (even though it looks nice once you open Word or Excel). I would avoid this for now until we hear if this is fixed in future updates. Office for Mac Home & Student 2011 - 1 Pack
Running Word 2011 on a Macbook Air, I watched a 400+ page document turn completely into asterisks. Every single character. *********** I tried to undo typing with no luck (sometimes a word would show up, sometimes a sentence, but always the asterisks and never my entire document). I tried to copy and paste into a new document so I could reformat. I tried to autorecover--the entire Word 2011 autorecovery file was empty, though I've been using the update since it came out. I tried to use the auto back-up file from my desktop (for some reason, it only had data saved from two months ago). I called customer support (1-800 Microsoft), was disconnected twice, and finally emailed the pasted file to a woman who told me that the file was corrupted, that she had never heard of this happening before, and then she proceeded to lecture me about saving. When I told her that I hit save every five or ten minutes, back up to ME (cloud) twice a day, and that the data lost went back about an hour, she said maybe I should burn a disk as often as I can. And then I killed her. (Okay, I didn't kill her, but when I told her to have a good day, I didn't mean it BECAUSE I KNEW IT WAS NIGHT TIME IN INDIA WHEN I CALLED)
I am not normally the type to write product reviews, but I really felt compelled to warn others about this problem. I am back to my old Word program now. I don't trust 2011 not to crap out on me. This is absolutely the most frustrating and annoying thing that Microsoft has ever done to me. And that is saying a lot.
I eagerly anticipated the release of the new MS Office for Mac, but so far I have found nothing worth cheering about at all. In fact, the PowerPoint presenter feature doesn't work right at all on my MacBook Pro, and two universities' projection systems. I have been forced to use the old 2008 version which still works on those same said projection systems.
The improvements over Office 2008 are incredible. The Visual Basic toolbox is back, allowing many more functions (for example, a proper equation editor- essential for engineers).
The interface is almost directly in line with 2010 (for Windows)- very nice.
Also, its very quick. The applications launch MUCH faster than 2008 and everything is much snappier.
I have been using 2011 for 2 months now- never going back to 2008.
I remember when live was beautiful, everything was easy and amazing and you can do many statistical analysis in Excel, need a ANOVA analysis, no problem my Excel can do it, a regression analysis, no problem I can do it, and histogram or a uniform distribution, don't worried I can do that too. This happy days happened a long time ago in 2004. Then Microsoft lunch Office 2008 without warning us about the elimination of the visual basic in the new Excel spreadsheet, so many of us buy it and suddenly find we can not use macros, solver and the analysis tool pack, in other words all the coolest things that make Excel spreadsheet better than Open Office or Numbers or whatever. Then we have no other choice to remove the 2008 and install 2004 again what a joke and a total disrespectful way to treated us. Then we wait a long three years to see the come back of the visual basic in Excel, many wait patiently and when finally Microsoft announce this magnificent event is the year 2011 and surprise, surprise this 2011 office DON'T HAVE THE ANALYSIS TOOL PACK!!!!!!!
Come on!!!!!!!!! What happen with you guys in MacBu unit, what are you thinking my God, is anyone there pay attention in what we want or we have to wait another 3 years to see now the come back of the Analysis Tool Pack, come on, are you kidding, is this a terrible and sickness joke? And don't tell me I can use the garbage piece of crap StatPlus:mac LE. I want a native Excel program that runs in Excel in the same workbook I been using, come on I so angry, we wait for 3 years and this is what we get!!!!!!!! What a way to screw your costumers, I want my money back!!!!!! Why you just can't do it right for once in your live?
My copy of Office for Mac 2011 installed just fine, but when I got to the Product Activation step, I saw that there was no product key sticker anywhere in the packaging. It wasn't as though it was a used copy and the sticker had been ripped off; it a brand new copy, and it was clear that no product key sticker had ever been put on. Microsoft's customer service was the first phone call I made, and they were no help at all, so I ended up contacting Amazon and they allowed me to return it. Based on all the customer reviews here, I won't be ordering a new copy. I suppose Microsoft's defective packaging saved me from what sounds like a terrible software edition. On the bright side, Amazon's customer service in this case was really wonderful--prompt, understanding, and fair.
-The Good: Nice visual interface, some new functionalities are good additions, great compatibility with PC-made Office files (the only selling point that forced me to buy it);
-The Bad: High price. Most people don't use 40% of all the functionalities yet they pay full price. If I did not need perfect compatibility with my PC-using colleagues, I would have gone with the Apple softwares, which are enough for me and cheaper.
-The Ugly: I have at least one crash every single day, losing data and/or wasting time cleaning up the "recovered files". It looks like it happens often when I am Copying & Pasting several times in a row.
Overall, is it worth $120+? Heck no. - Word - Excel - Office Mac - Os X'
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